Buyer of $3.3 Million Gursky Launches Artist Prize

When a print of Andreas Gursky’s “99 Cent II” diptych sold at a Sotheby’s auction for $3.3 million in March 2007, it set a new record as the most expensive photo ever sold. The buyer’s name, however, wasn’t announced.

This week’s New Yorker identifies him as Victor Pinchuk. Pinchuk has been called the richest man in the Ukraine, ranked number 246 on Forbes’ list of billionaires, and is believed to be worth about $2.6 billion.

What does he do with all that money? He's collected works by Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons; founded the PinchukArtCentre, a private museum in Kiev; and just launched a new $100,000 prize for artists under the age of 35.

All artists—no matter what medium they work in—who are under 35 may apply through the Prize’s web site. A panel of 100 curators, teachers, artists and critics will also be asked to make nominations. 

After an initial screening by a selection committee, a short list of 20 artists will be exhibited at the PinchukArtCentre. The winner of the $100,000 prize and five special prize winners will be announced in April.

The New Yorker says Pinchuk is determined to establish Kiev as a “cultural hub.” He will not be on the Prize's selection committee, but he has decided that the short list must include the winner of a prize that he has established for Ukrainian artists. “Let’s just say that from the beginning I wanted to give some privilege to Ukraine,” he said.

PhotoPhilanthropy.org Announces Contest Winners

Zoriah Miller has won the grand prize in the professional photography category of PhotoPhilanthropy.org's first Activist Awards competition. He will receive a $5,000 prize for a portfolio of images he shot of the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya for the International Rescue Committee.

Other winners included Massimo Dall'Argine and William Daniels, who both won $2,500 Excellence Awards in the professional category. Ian MacLellan won the $500 grand prize in the student category for his photo essay about the Kenyan operations of Christian Legal Education Aid and Research. Jamie Lloyd and Laura Valencia were recognized for excellence in the student category.

The contest results were announced December 15. PhotoPhilanthropy.org reports that 187 photographers from 30 countries entered a total of 219 photo essays. The entries included 150 essays from professional photographers. The judges included photographers Ken Light, Ed Kashi, Robert Holmes, and Gordon Wiltsie; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art senior curator Sandra S. Phillips; and Susie Tompkins Buell, who was founder and co-owner of the Esprit clothing company.

All contest entries, including the winners, are posted at photophilanthropy.org.

PhotoPhilanthropy's mission is to promote and support photographers working with non-profit organizations world wide. It launched last May with finding from several private individuals and foundations, according to founder and Executive Director Nancy Farese.

Pulitzer Board Relaxes Entry Rules for Web Sites

The Pulitzer Board announced today a change in eligibility rules that will open the door to even more Web-only news outlets, according to an Editor & Publisher report.

E&P reporter Joe Strupp writes:

"Last year, the Pulitzer Board allowed non-print newsrooms to compete for the first time in the 14 journalism categories, but stipulated they must be 'primarily dedicated to original news reporting and coverage of ongoing events.'

Today's announcement states that restriction has been lifted.

The new eligibility rules require only that the submitting news outlet be 'a text-based United States newspaper or news site that publishes at least weekly during the calendar year and that adheres to the highest journalistic principles.'

The previous requirement 'sometimes excluded possibly promising entries-notably by online columnists, critics and bloggers-because of the nature of their Web affiliation' the announcement added. 'Original reporting and coverage of ongoing events will remain the central considerations in the prizes for reporting and writing.'

Follow the link above for the full story.

Update 12/3: We asked Sig Gissler, a spokesperson for the Pulitzer Board, whether photojournalism-based blogs and Web sites would qualify for Pulitzer Prizes under the new rules. His answer, in a nutshell, was probably not. "When we designed these rules, we had in mind Web sites that were essentially text based," he said. Photos and video may be part of those sites, but not the predominant media, he explained. But, he added, "These are lines we're going to have to wrestle with as we go along." Photography-driven sites are welcome to submit entries, and make an argument for their qualification, Gissler said, "but the $50 [entry] fee is non-refundable."

World Press Photo Adds Rule About Photo Manipulation

Amsterdam-based World Press Photo has announced the call for entries for its 2010 contest, adding an interesting new rule:

"The content of an image must not be altered. Only retouching which conforms to currently accepted standards in the industry is allowed. The jury is the ultimate arbiter of these standards and may at its discretion request the original, unretouched file as recorded by the camera or an untoned scan of the negative or slide."

It's good to see WPP addressing this issue, since it makes the contest fairer. Now, the hard part: What does "currently accepted standards" mean? World Press Photo managing director Michiel Munneke says the wording of the new rule reflects the "need for flexibility." It will be interesting to see how often—if ever—the jury determines it needs to examine original files.

A press release from World Press Photo announcing the call for entries is below.

Related post: Earlier this year, the Picture of The Year photo contest in Denmark adopted a new rule to forbid photo alterations.

Revealed: Favorite Camera Settings of College Sports Photogs

Judging is wrapping up today in the College Photographer of the Year competition at the University of Missouri.

Earlier this week, the contest's official blog published a clever series of charts produced from the metadata in the digital files entered in the sports category of the contest.

The charts (including the one seen here) graphically present the apertures, shutter speeds, focal lengths and camera models used to shoot the sports entries.

The most favored settings: Aperture f/2.8, shutter speed 1/1000 sec., lens 300mm, using a Nikon D3.

Read more.

New Getty Images Grants Schedule: How to Apply

Getty Images will award all five of its $20,000 Grants for Editorial Photography at once next year, instead of breaking the announcements up over two rounds. This means there's now one deadline: Circle May 1 on your 2010 calendars.

Getty is also continuing its new Grants for Good program, which awards two grants of $15,000 each. Beginning next year, photographers must have the support of a creative agency in order to be considered for the Grants for Good. The deadline to apply for those awards is March 1, 2010.

Details about how to apply are online here. A press release from Getty follows.

A Roundup of Upcoming Contest Deadlines

Magenta Foundation 2010 Flash Forward Competition for Emerging Photographers
Submission Deadline: Thursday, December 31, 2009
Prize: Bright Spark Award winner will receive $5,000. All competition Winners and Honourable Mentions will be published. 2010 FF selected winners will be published as part of the festival catalogue.
Contest Link

Center for Photography at Woodstock PHOTOGRAPHY NOW 2009 | PQ
Juror: Debra Klomp Ching, Klompching Gallery, New York
Submission Deadline: Friday, October 30, 2009
Prize: Accepted work will be published in issue #99 of CPW's internationally distributed magazine, PQ. All who enter will receive a one year membership which includes a subscription to PQ.
Contest Link

Houston Center for Photography 2010 Juried Fellowship Competition
Juror: Brian Clamp, ClampArt, New York
Submission Deadline: Saturday, October 31, 2009
Prize: Two fellowship recipients will be awarded $2,000 each; one Houston-based artist will receive the Carol Crow Memorial Fellowship and another artist from anywhere in the world will receive the HCP Fellowship. Both Fellowship awards include an solo exhibition at Houston Center for Photography. The Juror will grant 6 Honorable Mentions; the recipients will be included in an online exhibition.
Contest Link

2010 World Press Photo Contest
Submission Deadline: Thursday, January 14, 2010
Prize: First-prize winners in each category will receive a cash prize of 1,500 Euros. The premier award, the World Press Photo of the Year, carries a cash prize of 10,000 Euros. The prizewinning pictures are presented in a traveling exhibition.
Contest Link

Burn Becomes First Online-Only Publication to Win a Lucie

Last night at the Lucie Awards, Photography Magazine of the Year went to Burn, the online publication edited by photographer David Alan Harvey.

It's a milestone: This is the first time the Photography Magazine of the Year award has recognized an all-electronic publication. It's also significant that Burn, which launched less than a year ago, has already established itself as a leading venue for photo stories.

PDN's David Walker interviewed Harvey earlier this year about Burn magazine; we published the Q&A in our September issue. Read the PDN interview with David Alan Harvey here.

Lucies Awarded at Ceremony in New York

Updated 10:37 p.m. ET

"Wow, I haven't prepared," said Nadav Kander, taking the stage to accept the International Photography Awards Photographer of the Year honor tonight at the 7th Annual Lucie Awards. Improvising, he held the microphone against his chest, which picked up his racing heartbeat.

There were several such expressions of emotion at the Lucies, which brought hundreds of photo professionals spanning several generations to Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York.

Not all of the moments were celebratory. The Lucies were without a naming sponsor this year. Founder and chairman Hossein Farmani referenced the difficulties in raising money in the tough economy. Some of the jokes by the emcee, comedian Barry Weintraub, landed with a thud.

One of the stronger moments, however, was a tribute to Irving Penn and other photographers who have died in the past year. Several of the winners referenced Penn's influence in their acceptance speeches.

Below is a list of Lucie honorees, plus nominees for the International Photography Awards and Lucie Awards support categories. Winners are in red.

2009 OSI Distribution Grant Winners Announced

Photographers Greg Constantine, Mitch Epstein, Katja Heinemann and Brenda Ann Kenneally are this year's Open Society Institute Distribution Grant winners. They were announced on Friday.

The grants are awarded to support documentary photographers who are working on new ways to use photography for positive social change. The amounts vary from $5,000 to $30,000, though the specific amount of each grant wasn't announced. Details and links to partner organizations working with the photographers are in a press release below.